page_title: O'Donovan family
section_title: Foundation
hierarchical_section_title: O'Donovan family / Foundation
caption_attribution_description: Map showing the Viking settlements in Ireland
context_page_description: The O'Donovans are an Irish family. Their patronymic surname derives from Irish Ó Donnabháin, meaning the grandsons or descendants of Donnubán, referring to the 10th century ruler of the Uí Fidgenti, Donnubán mac Cathail. During the 12th and 13th century, O'Donovan relations relocated from the Bruree/Croom area south to the Kingdom of Desmond and to Carbery, where they were a ruling family for centuries and played a role in the establishment of a feudal society under the MacCarthys. Other septs retreated into the southeast corner of the Ui Fidgheinte territory, reaching from Broadford/Feenagh to the Doneraile area, where their territory was identified in the 16th century as Synnagh-Donovan. The northern septs of the O'Donovans did not use a White Rod as the family's position in their original territory was vastly eroded, while several septs of O'Donovans in the southwest territories were semi-autonomous flatha under the MacCarthy Reagh dynasty in Carbery, with the most notable being local petty kings. The family were counted among the leading Gaelic nobility of Ireland.
context_section_description: The O'Donovans trace their ancestry from Donnubán mac Cathail, Lord of Uí Fidgenti, a tenth-century ruler of the Irish regional kingdom of Uí Fidgenti, who had married the daughter of his norse ally, Ivar of Limerick of the Uí Ímair. The O'Donovans carried Danish names for the next three centuries.  Donndubhán was a major figure and opponent of Mathgamain mac Cennétig and his brother Brian Bóruma in the Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib. He was in part responsible for the death of Mathgamain, and killed Donnubán and his brother-in-law Aralt mac Ímair, newly elected King of the Foreigners of Munster, around the year 978 in the Battle of Cathair Cuan. However, Donnubán's son Cathal mac Donnubáin would later be one of the Munster kings supporting Brian in the Battle of Clontarf in 1014.
  By 1300, most of the O'Donovans had vacated the geographical territory held for the previous thousand years.  Most of the Ui Chairpre who moved to the Carbery area merged with Donovans of the Corca Laidghe. Of the family remaining in County Limerick after the 13th century few records are preserved. Clearly, however, there were O'Donovans in the Limerick and Tipperary areas during the period 1400-1575, and the senior descendant of the last chief of the Ui Donabhains of Fidgheinte sat in the 1689 Parliament along with an O'Donovan from both Clan Cathail and Clan Lochlan.
caption: Norse settlements in Ireland
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